Changeable-letter sign.



G. M. KINNEY.

CHANGEABLE LETTER SIGN.

APPLIOATION FILED DEO.10, 1912.

L7 1F7 Patented July 8, 1913.

W/az; I

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS CELIA MURRAY KINNEY, OF NEW YORK, N. 'Y.

CHANGEABLE-LET'DER-SIGN.

Specification of Letterselatent.

Application filed December 10, 1912. Serial Ho..735,9 28.

Patented July8,:1913.

To all'whom-z'tmag concern: A

Be it-knownthat I,\CELIA M. KINNEY, a citizen of the .United States,ands resident ofthe city-of New ;York,'borough of Manhattan, in thecounty and State of New York, ;have invented a .new and ImprovedChangeable-:Letter -Sign, of which the following is ayfull, clear, andexact description.

This invention relates .to display apparatus and ,has particularreference to signs or advertising devices which involve ,removable wordsor letters.

Among the special objects of this invention is to provide a meanswhereby the names or words which-make up .a bulletin board or directoryforan ottice'buildingor the like-may be more readily changed for shiftedthan is possible withl'the rneansmow in common use. i

More particularly stated, the apparatus herein disclosed-comprisesabulletin board or the like which. is made up of a series of easilyremovable and .replaceable ,panels whereby-it is possible and expedientfor the superintendent ofa building or other operavtor to arrange thenames or words .upon

the'panels while seated :at his desk in his, of-

fice, if he so desires, instead of.his-beingreg uired as islnow commonlydone,.to stand upon a step-ladder adjacent the bulletin board-to makethe required adjustment or; to

.se-himselfto the drafts-commonly-in ci exit to .such places wherebulletin boards nf thisrnature are displayed. In this way I theconvenience I of the operator .is .greatly faeilitat ed'by theirnprovement -herein disclosed, and the publicity and obstructionincident to.-theoperator working in a publichallway are avoided.

The foregoing and other objectsof this invention will be hereinaftermore fully described and claimed and illustrated in the drawings forminga part 4 of this specification in which flike characters of referenceindicate corresponding parts in all the views-and in which- Figure 1 isa front elevation of a frag-- ment of a bulletin boardembodying thisinvention; .Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the samesubstantially onthe line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3is adetailperspective of one of theremovable panels;.the.'same showing particularly the rear .viewthere0f;-.Fig. 4 is atransverse sectional detail on;the planerepresented by-the line Hot Fig. 3.; and Fig. dis a detailof one qftheinterchange able letters, indicatingthe springshank.

A.bulletin board made inaccordance with thls invention-comprises a pair,or any suitable -nu1nber. of pairs, of preferably vertical parallelrails or channel members 10 .and 11, andextendingbetween said rails andtemporarily secured .in place thereby are .any suitable number of panels.12. .T-he pposingf-aees ofleach pair of-rails are undercut or grooved,as indicated at 10 and 11, whereby there are provided gflanges 13,and 1. 1 vwhich;normally. overlap the extreme ends of the panels. .Thegroove or 1 channel 10', however, is deeper than .the companion channel11.

.The panels are preferably formed, .as indicated in thedrawings, ofasubstantially rectangular .form ,in cross section and provided with .aplurality of .parallel I grooves 15 extending inwardly or .rearevardlyfrom the face-thereof. As,indicated,.o ne ofthese grooves is ,preferably.central of the front face ofthe-panel and another-is arranged between.the intermediate .groove and the bottom of.the panel. Each panelfurthermore, is;prefer.ably -covered-by,me ans ofa strip -of felt 16orother suitable material, the covering being introduced into andcovering the walls .of the grooves also. .As shownespecially in Fig.2,one ...end. of the panel, the end which coiiperates with the channel 11and flange 14,.is-beveledat 17 for coipenation with the beveled wall 18of the channel 11 .fonthe purpose of facilitating the .manipulation-of-the panel. At

the other end of each panel is secured some suitable resilient.meanswhichserves, among other things, {the purpose of ,holding thepanel in "the ,position indicated .in Fig. -2 with'bothends oftheipan-el insubstantial contact with the inner faces'of the-flanges.

.amount of slidable engagement asthrongh a slot 21 through whichprojects ascrew 22 intermediate the ends of thespring andmot far remotefrom the adjacent end of .the panel. The free end 23 of the spring -iscurved outwardly slightly. andoccnpies thebottom of the shank 10, .said.endbearin'g directly at 24 away from the end of the panel, tendingthrough its resiliency to force the panel into the channel 11'. Saidspring bears also against the inwardly projecting rear flange of thechannel member 10, as indicated at 25, whereby the adjacent end of thepanel is forced outwardly or maintained in contact with the flange 13.

The effect of the spring just described, serving to maintain theopposite end of the panel in proper position in the channel 11 andagainst the flange 14, is facilitated by virtue of'the beveled surfaces17 and 18.

The panels are removable from the directory frame by a simple endwisemovement for the'purpose of freeing the end from engagement by theflange 14. Such movement may be effected in any suitable manner, eitherby the operators finger nails or by the use of a suitable tool which maybe introducedinto one or the other of the grooves 15 or caused to gripthe tongue occupying the space between said grooves. As illustrated inthe drawings, the panels upon being moved slightly toward the leftagainst the resiliency of the spring 19 will be free to be withdrawnfrom the channel member 11 and then may be withdrawn from the oppositechannel 10 in an obvious manner. In order to replace the same or anotherpanel in the same space, a reverse movement thereof will be made and thespring will maintain the panel in the position indicated, as alreadyexplained.

As intimated above, the several panels may be filled with words orletters in accordance with the exigencies of any particular case whilethe operator is in his office or elsewhere, and when they are ready, thematter of applying them to the bulletin frame is a very simple andconvenient one and the effect of the appearance is or may be even betterthan when the words or names are arranged while the operator isoccupying a place in front of the bulletin board, as is now common.Among the reasons for. this may be stated the fact that the operator,while occupying his own oflice or not being'subjected to theinconvenience above indicated, will have better facilities for arrangingthe names and other characters in the best possible form. The panelsbeing made of uniform size and being interchangeable, of course, presentthe proper appearance when applied to the board.

Each letter or character, as indicated in Fig. 5, is preferably providedwith a shank '26, the rear end of which is preferably bent or foldedover, whereby the material of the shank will constitute a spring clipserving to substantially hold the character in the particular groove 15for which it is intended. The clip or shank 26 formed and arranged, as'shown,serves another function of some importance, namely,-as pertaining.tion hereinafter claimed.

to letters such as the Hs, Ns and Ss, which sometimes are slightlytroublesome in determining which are the tops and bottoms, the free endsof the several clips will be uniformly arranged with respect to theshanks. The operator will, therefore, know, when grasping a character inhis fingers, which is the top or bottom. The lower groove 15 of eachpanel, in addition to the function already set forth, is intendedespecially for the application of punctuation marks, the manner ofapplying such characters preferably being the same as the manner ofapplying the letters already described.

As shown in Fig. 2, the channel member 11 may, if desired, constitute orinclude a structure corresponding to the channel member 10 in case thebulletin board is intended for an additional series of panels. Theconstruction and operation of the duplicate device Wi'llreferably,'.however, be substantially sim' ar to that already describedand therefore no further description seems to be necessary.

The several parts of this device may be made of any suitable materials,and the relative sizes, forms and proportions thereof may be varied to aconsiderable extent without departing from the spirit of the inven-Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters -Patent:-

1. In achangeable letter sign, the combination of a pair of rails havingflanges extending toward each other, one of said rails having a beveledwall in the rear of its flange, a removable panel between said rails andin the rear of said flanges, one end of the panel being beveled tocooperate with said beveled wall and a spring adjacent the other end ofthe panel serving to force the panel away from the adjacent rail intoengagement with the opposite rail and where- I. by the panel, by virtueof the spring and said bevels, is maintained normally in contact withthe rear faces of said-flanges.

2. In a changeable letter sign, the combination of a pair of channeledmembers, the channel of one member being deeper than'115 the other, aremovable panel extending between said channel members, and a springconnected to the rear wall of the panel and extending therefrom past oneend of the panel into the deeper channel aforesaid, said springcooperating with the adjacent member and serving to maintain the panelnormally in the shallower channel.

3. In a changeable letter sign, the combi nation of a pair of channeledmembers hav- 12 ing flanges projecting toward each other, one of thechannels being deeper than the other and each having a rear wall, aremovable panelextending between said members, and a spring secured tothe rear wall of the 139 panel and extending thence into the deeperchannel, the free end of said spring bearing laterally and rearwardly atdifferent points on the wall of said deeper channel and serving therebyto maintain the panel projected into the shallower channel and againstthe rear wall of the opposite member and hence forced outwardly intocontact with said flanges, the rear Wall of the shallower channel andthe adjacent panel end having c0- 1) operating beveled surfaces.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses.

CELIA MURRAY KINNEY.

Witnesses:

CHARLES W. GALLAN, J r., CECIL A. ARTHUR.

